Maco Faniel
Professor Faniel, a native Houstonian, is an educator, scholar, writer, speaker, and advocate. He is the National Program Manager for the Petey Greene Program. In this role, he leads staff on the eastern seaboard who recruit and train college students to tutor incarcerated students in jails and prisons. Professor Faniel is the author of Hip Hop in Houston: The Origin and Legacy, the first book that examines the history of Houston’s hip hop culture. He is also a contributor to the book Religion in Hip Hop: Mapping the New Terrain.
Professor Faniel recently earned a terminal Master’s of Arts Degree in History from Rutgers University, where he was trained as a historian of African American life and culture. He holds an MA in History from Texas Southern University and a BA in Speech & Communications from Texas A&M University.
Professor Faniel’s research centers the social, cultural, and intellectual histories of African Americans in relationship to the carceral state and post-war urban spatializing. Research areas include: the political economy and cultural geography of the war on drugs, mass incarceration, the sunbelt south, race making, identity construction, and hip hop and pop culture. Currently, he examines the war on drugs as a federal mandate carried out in Houston, TX.
Over the last eight years, Professor Faniel has used research, writing, and teaching to help students become justice-oriented citizens. Most recently Professor Faniel taught courses at Piedmont Virginia Community College, Texas Southern University, Hunter College, five prisons in New Jersey through The New Jersey Scholarship and Transformative Education in Prisons Consortium, and Lone Star Community College.
His writings have appeared in numerous web and print publications. As a public scholar, Professor Faniel is often invited to write, teach, and speak about issues of justice and equity, mental health, and hip hop and popular culture.
He is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity and firmly believes that average people follow paths, but leaders of significance carve out trails.
When Professor Faniel is not thinking, writing, teaching, or helping folks get free, his main job is being the husband of one and the father of two.
